Communities from throughout the Mahoning Valley in search of strategies to revitalize decaying but once vibrant commercial strips need look no farther for guidance than the North Side of Youngstown and the southern tip of Trumbull County.

There, a robust partnership of local governments, civic organizations, economic development groups, regional planners, businesses, medical institutions, Youngstown State University, land banks and others have united cohesively under the umbrella of the Building a Better Belmont coalition.

The group has focused its attention and energies on a 4.7-mile stretch of Belmont Avenue (state Route 193) running from downtown Youngstown through Liberty Township. Significant portions of this strategically important target area clearly need improvement and renewal. Decades of population losses, business closings and disinvestment have taken a heavy toll.

Clearly the coalition has its work cut out for it. But given the successes it already has achieved in laying the groundwork for the formidable multi-year endeavor, we’re confident the coalition’s lofty goals can be achieved.

It’s off to a promising start. Landscaping, cleanup and beautification efforts led by Youngstown 3rd Ward Councilwoman Samantha Turner, a BBB leader, already have lessened blight in some areas of Belmont in the city

Partnership building for the initiative has been substantial as well and has already borne fruit. Taking lead roles have been Youngstown CityScape, Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, MS Consultants and others, each with its own skill sets and expertise to pave the way for success.

No doubt this sturdy partnership played a role in the project winning a $200,000 technical assistance grant from the Ohio Appalachian Regional Commission to help finance planning and execution of the makeover.

And just last week, the Youngstown Board of Control — the body composed of the mayor, law director and finance director overseeing the city’s purse strings —

approved contracts totaling $150,000 to jumpstart additional progress.

Those funds largely will be used to enable MS Consultants to craft an engineering services plan for a revitalized Belmont corridor. Its role calls for close collaboration with the BBB coalition to identify objectives for renewed and appropriate land use, streetscaping and other beautification and revitalization efforts.

Fortunately, that work will be facilitated by a comprehensive 40-page study of the same stretch released by Eastgate in 2020. That detailed analysis of five primary segments of state Route 193 through Youngstown and Liberty provides a clear roadmap for the coalition’s work. Its still timely recommendations include calls for senior citizen residential development, public transit expansion and traffic and pedestrian safety enhancements.

Also contributing to the strong potential for BBB to reach its intended finish line has been major reinvestment along the corridor in both Youngstown and Liberty.

Witness the growth at Mercy Health Youngstown’s main campus, the opening of its Liberty rehabilitation hospital and its soon-to-open adjacent behavioral health hospital.

Witness the relatively new Carl Nunziato Department of Veterans Affairs Clinic and the construction of an adjacent $7 million Veterans Service Commission service center to create a campus of comprehensive coverage for the Valley’s 40,000 military veterans.

Or witness on the outer fringes of the corridor the continued growth and federal investment in the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport and adjacent Youngstown Air Reserve Station, most recently illustrated by the Department of Defense’s approval of a new fleet of state-of-the-art cargo aircraft valued at

$878 million.

The project also profits from significant public engagement and support. The coalition recently attracted hundreds of riders to its Bike Belmont excursion from downtown to the airport. That sunny spring ride showcased the corridor’s potential and mounted greater momentum for it.

Those wishing to support the project toward its progress can do so easily enough by adding their names to the project’s contact list. Register at CityScape’s dedicated website for the project at buildingabetterbelmont.org to do so.

After all, despite its blemishes accumulated over years and years of neglect, the Belmont Avenue corridor remains a heavily traveled and strategically significant gateway in the Mahoning Valley. It is a primary entrance to downtown Youngstown, to the region’s most concentrated conglomeration of medical services, to the Valley’s largest center of higher education and veterans services and to an increasingly renewed center of shopping, dining and commercial activity.

As such, its preservation and amelioration deserve priority focus. Clearly the Building a Better Belmont coalition, via its prolific planning and myriad partnerships, is on the right track to achieve its noble ends. Other once-thriving commercial corridors in need of revival in the Valley should follow BBB’s promising lead.